nfhs injury surveillance system
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NFHS Injury Surveillance System. R. Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., Associate Professor Colorado School of Public Health. PIPER. Update on Injury Among High School Athletes. R. Dawn Comstock, PhD Associate Professor Colorado School of Public Health, Epidemiology - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Take Part. Get Set For Life.™
National Federation of StateHigh School Associations
NFHS Injury Surveillance System
R. Dawn Comstock, Ph.D., Associate ProfessorColorado School of Public Health
Update on Injury Among High School Athletes
R. Dawn Comstock, PhDAssociate Professor
Colorado School of Public Health, EpidemiologyUniversity of Colorado School of Medicine, Pediatrics (Emergency Medicine)
Pediatric Injury Prevention, Education, and Research (PIPER) Program
NFHS/NCAA/SFIA MtgWednesday , April 24, 2013
PIPER
Brief Background 2012/13 is the 8th year of consecutive data collection for High
School RIOTM
ATs from across the country report data via an internet-based data collection tool
20 sports currently studied Boys’ baseball, basketball, cross country, football, ice hockey, lacrosse,
soccer, swimming & diving, track & field, and wrestling Girls’ basketball, cross country, field hockey, lacrosse, soccer, softball,
swimming & diving, track & field, volleyball Co-Ed spirit (cheerleading)
Definitions
Injury (actually adverse health event!) Occurred as a result of an organized high school athletic practice
or competition AND Required medical attention (and came to ATs attention) AND Resulted in restriction of the athletes participation for ≥1 day
beyond the day of injury OR Concussion, fractures, and dental injury (since 2007/08)
Athletic Exposure (AE) One athlete participating in one competition or practice
Dataset Available Over 40,000 injuries
About 50% competition and 50% practice
Just under 20,000,000 AE About 30% competition and 70% practice
Vast majority are injury but also capture other adverse health events Skin infection Exertional heat illness Asthma attacks
Total Injury Rates Per 1,000 AEs (High School RIO Data)
*Indicates a significant decrease over time
General Patterns in 2011/12 Body sites injured
Head/face, ankle, and knee most common
Diagnoses Sprain/strain and concussion most common
Severity Varied widely by sport
Across sports, 6% to 38% kept athletes out of play for >3 weeks Across sports, 0% to 21% resulted in surgery
Concussions Are Still a HOT Topic
Concussion Legislation (CDC NCIPC Website)
2009: Washington passed the first concussion in sports law – Zackery Lystedt Law
One month later: Oregon passed the second – Max’s law
Between 2009 and 2012: 43 states and DC have passed “return to play laws”
Laws vary by state Age group/type of athlete covered Who is “appropriate medical professional” capable of RTP decisions Educational requirements
Three desired action steps Educate coaches, parents, and athletes Remove athletes from play Obtain permission to return to play after at least 24 hrs
Concussion Injury Rates Per 10,000 AEs (High School RIO Data)
*Indicates a significant increase over time
Injury Patterns Over TimeDiagnosis 05/06 06/07 07/08 08/09 09/10 10/11 11/12
Strain/sprain
52.0% 48.2% 48.3% 45.7% 44.7% 43.2% 41.7%
contusion 12.2% 13.7% 12.4% 11.5% 14.0% 9.6% 10.4%
fracture 9.8% 8.9% 10.2% 10.9% 9.9% 10.2% 8.0%
concussion 9.1% 8.4% 9.2% 11.8% 14.0% 20.0% 22.7%
other 16.8% 20.9% 19.9% 20.2% 17.5% 17.0% 17.2%
total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
Football Concussion Injury Rates Per 10,000 AEs (High School RIO Data)
*Indicates a significant increase over time
Percent of Concussed Athletes Returning to Play <1 Day (High School RIO Data)
Who Removed the Concussed Athlete From Play (High School RIO Data)
Trends Over Time: Good News, Bad News
Good News: Overall high school sports-related injury rates continue to decline Slight but significant Across most sports
Bad News: Concussion rates have significantly increased Across most sports Concussions represent a greater proportion of all sports-related injuries
Good News: More athletes are following concussion RTP guidelines
Best News: Coaches, parents, athletes are more knowledgeable Very few athletes are returning to play the day they sustain concussion More athletes are being removed from play by coaches
Manuscript in Progress: Concussion Support for efforts to keep football players from leading with
their head Teaching proper tackling techniques Enforcing rules
High School RIO football data from 2008/09 through 2011/12
# of symptoms, symptom resolution time, and RTP time were not associated with impact location but a higher % of concussed football players who sustained impacts to the top of the head experienced loss of consciousness (8.8%) compared to those who sustained impacts to other areas of the head (3.3%)
Manuscript Under Review: Concussion Evidence that neck strengthening programs may be an effective
primary concussion prevention mechanism that is inexpensive, easy to adopt, widely available, and fully within the athlete’s control
Sub-study nested within High School RIO Anthropometric data collected on 6,704 athletes Boys’ and girls’ soccer, basketball, and lacrosse
Aggregate neck strength (p<0.001), gender (p<0.001), and sport (p=0.007) were significant predictors of concussion in unadjusted models. After adjusting for gender and sport, aggregate neck strength remained a significant predictor of concussion (p=0.004)
New Study: Age/League Comparison Age differences in youth football injuries
Overall injury rates higher in high school athletes than middle school athletes (RR=1.48, 95% CI 1.27-1.73)
Concussion rates higher in older athletes (RR 1.73, 95% CI 1.23-2.43) but concussion represented similar proportions of all injuries among high school (23%) and middle school (21%) athletes
League differences (Pop Warner and Middle School Sponsored) Overall similar patterns Higher practice injury rates in middle school teams than Pop Warner (RR=1.66,
95% CI 1.03-2.65) Practice-related concussion rates higher in middle school teams than Pop Warner
(RR=9.79, 95% CI 1.21-73.31)
Conclusions Regarding Concussions Concussion rates continue to rise but more injured athletes
are being diagnosed promptly and managed properly
Educational efforts are having the desired effect
Appropriate protective equipment must be fitted properly, in good repair, and worn consistently
Younger athletes are also at risk of concussion, they need protective equipment designed specifically for them
Challenge Issued! Can you design equipment and uniforms that help improve the
health and safety of high school athletes – above and beyond their initially intended purpose? Consider unintended benefits Consider unintended consequences
Recent Study: Heat Illness Objective: to describe the epidemiology of exertional heat illness in
high school athletes using High School RIO data captured from 2005/06 through 2010/11 Am J Prev Med, 2013; 44(1): 8-14
All data from all 20 sports from both High School RIO samples
Only heat illness that resulted in a restriction of the athlete’s participation for at least 1 day beyond the date of onset were captured Tip of the ice burg only!
206 EHI captured during 17,172,376 AE rate of 1.20 per 100,000 AE
Study Results: Heat Illness Most (60.3%) occurred in August
Of practice related heat illness, 32.0% occurred > 2 hours into the practice session
Wide geographic distribution
Incidence rate in football was 11.4 times that in other sports combined (95% CI 8.3-15.5)
47.1% of football players who sustained EHI were obese 27.5% of football players sustaining all other injuries and adverse health events
were obese
A third (33.6%) occurred when a medical professional was not onsite at the time of onset
New Study: Heat Stroke Survey of 1,142 ATs providing care to high school football players during 2011/12
16.3% one to three events 4% four or more events Not just a southern problem: 225 events reported by 43 states
Difficulty implementing management strategies 98.2% removed football equipment 52.0% immersed athlete in ice water 51.6% took temperature 46.2% cooled athletes with a fan 8.0% used portable air conditioning 5.8% placed ice bags on atheltes
Much better to prevent events in the first place!
Study Conclusions: Heat Illness Although heat illness occurred most frequently in football, athletes in
all sports and all geographic regions are at risk
Because a third of all heat illness occurred when medical professionals were not present it is imperative that high school athletes, coaches, parents and administrators are trained to identify and appropriately respond to heat illness events
Implementing effective preventive measures depends on increasing awareness of exertional heat illness and relevant preventive and therapeutic countermeasures
How can uniform and equipment designers help?